Space Stations and Graveyards is a collection of short horror and science fiction stories from three young writers, all somewhat new to the field, but all with an obvious talent for the work. Going into the book, the first striking thing you comes across is the cover by Deron Douglas showing a small cemetery against the backdrop of space, an eclipsed sun and what looks like a huge space station in the background. The small cemetery is almost chilling against the black of space. The second thing you notice is the diversity.

In Brannon’s “Kamikaze” we meet a mannequin assassin. Brown gives us genetically altered wolves, while Grover offers a giant bug that eats away sickness in the story “Miracle Cure”. There’s a haunted radio station (Brannon‘s “The Small Hours”) an ancient evil posing as a small-time store owner (Brown‘s “Malarath”), and a young man secretly building the perfect woman (Grover‘s “Dream Design”). If you're looking for the classic monsters--vampires, werewolves and such--you're out of luck (although there are PLENTY of zombies), but if you want something different, it's probably in here.

The gist of the stories here reminded me of the masters of the short form, Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison. Long time ago, before someone came along and decided short stories had to be long and have complete endings where all the questions are answered, there were stories like these. Brannon, Brown, and Grover remind us there’s nothing at all wrong with a few hundred words and an open, sometimes ominous ending Brown’s “The Tomb in the Stars” reminded me of Ellison’s story “Life Hutch” in which a man finds himself trapped inside a small space station life hutch, dying and held prisoner by the malfunctioning robot on guard. In Brown’s story, a man wakes in space to find himself trapped in a storage room while the rest of his ship is slaughtered my an alien army.

In Brannon’s “Born Again”, science is utilized to bring about the Second Coming, but this open-ended story satisfies just fine without the tidy wrap-up.

Grover’s “Heading Home” about a man who finds himself on a very strange bus ride is so reminiscent of so many of Bradbury’s stories, it’s uncanny.

Jason Brannon, Eric S. Brown, and John Grover are three up-and-coming (I hate that phrase, but in the case of these three, it fits) horror and science fiction writers who's specialties, right now, are short stories. The ideas are compact, the writing is straightforward, and until they learn to linger on a detail or draw out a scene, I don't see them writing that 500 page novel just yet. But like I always say, you have to go with your strengths, and for Brannon, Brown, and Grover, that's the short story.

Brannon I know in name only. I've visited his message board a few times (http://pub157.ezboard.com/fdarkvesperpublishingfrm14), and if he's got one of those already, then SOMEONE thinks he's going somewhere. John Grover, I've read a time or two before (I had some poetry published in the webzine Something Wicked Online alongside his story "The Men's Room"--good story, he should have included it in Space Stations and Graveyards). Eric Brown I know pretty well. Well enough anyway, we've written a story together. Eric's been writing just over 2 years and has over 100 publications to his credit, including the 10 stories in here, plus the two collaborations ("Immortal" is credited to Eric S. Brown and John Grover, and "Alone" to Brown and Jason Brannon--Eric's pretty big on collaborations, and VERY easy to work with).

Back to the book.

Space Stations and Graveyards is a pretty good collection. The authors have included their own individual themes throughout their contributions. Brannon's stories have a magical theme, Grover's are more wild (with stories like "Miracle Cure" and "Disembodied", it's easy to tell he's got the imagination and fervor of a young writer). Brown's stories provide the thrust of the science fiction, with stories like "C-Zone", "Wolves", "The Brightest Day", "The Tomb in the Stars" "Omega Level 5" "The Underneath" and "Symbiosis" all being sci-fi stories of the first order, aliens, space ships, galactic wars or whatever else his mind dreams up. It doesn't hurt that, story-wise, he equals the contributions of the other two, providing 10 of his own, plus the two collaborations to Brannon's 6, Grover's 6, and their own parts in the two collabs. With numbers like that, you'd think Brown's stories would overpower the other two and turn Space Stations and Graveyards into a book by Eric S. Brown, featuring Jason Brannon and John Grover, but that doesn't happen here. The spotlight is shared equally by all, and no one ever takes away from the other two, it's truly a collective effort.

If I were asked what could I do to make Space Stations and Graveyards a better book, I could only think of 1 thing. Get an editor. Space Stations and Graveyards is published by Double Dragon Press. I know almost nothing about this company, but I can almost guarantee you they don't edit the manuscripts they publish. Space Stations and Graveyards has a LOT of typos, things an editor would catch, things a writer using spellcheck would probably miss. Also, an editor might help in keeping the facts straight. In one story, a man gets on a bus, goes to the bathroom at the back, and gets a drink of water from the sink. A fact checker would catch this. Anyone who's been to the bathroom on a bus would notice the sign that says "Do Not Drink This Water". It's the little things like that that detract from truly enjoying the stories as much as I wanted to, but that only counts for the things I know about. If I'd never been in a motorcoach bathroom, I never would have known the difference. But you can bet if I caught it, someone else out there will too, and unfortunately it's little things like that that can hurt a writer's credibility.

I can easily predict good things to come from the three young authors of these stories and, by having a copy of this book, when those things come about, I'll be able to say, "I was reading them when . . . "

The Contents:
"Kamikaze" by Jason Brannon
"Night Shopping" by Eric S. Brown
"The Red Book" by John Grover
"C-Zone" by Eric S. Brown
"Born Again" by Jason Brannon
"Wolves" by Eric S. Brown
"Immortal" by Eric S. Brown & John Grover
"Little Prey" by John Grover
"The Brightest Day" by Eric S. Brown
"The Tomb in the Star" by Eric S. Brown
"The Small Hours" by Jason Brannon
"Alone" by Eric S. Brown & Jason Brannon
"Malarath" by Eric S. Brown
"Heading Home" by John Grover
"Omega Level 5" by Eric S. Brown
"Miracle Cure" by John Grover
"A New Eden" by Jason Brannon
"Slipping in the Snow" by Eric S. Brown
"Dream Design" by John Grover
"The Underneath" by Eric S. Brown
"Kilroy Was Here" by Jason Brannon
"Symbiosis" by Eric S. Brown
"Disembodied" by John Grover
"A Few Misspoken Words" by Jason Brannon

Recommended: Yes